University of Aden Faculty of Engineering Odd Semester Examination (2011-2012) Subject: Computer Architecture Date: /4/2012 Class: B4EC/B4ECS

Time: 2 hours -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ANSWER ANY FOUR QUESTIONS 1# (a) What is a micro-operation? (b) Do the following changes to a computer system increase throughput, decrease response time, or both? 1. Replacing the processor in a computer with a faster one. 2. Adding additional computers to a system. 2# (a) What is the response time of a system? (b) Differentiate between the Computer Organization, Computer Design and Computer Architecture? (Give definitions) 3# (a) How to calculate the overall speedup a system according to the amdahls law? (b) How much do we have to improve the overall performance of a computer, if the microprocessor is replaced by another 10 times faster one. Suppose that the microprocessor is used 70% of the total execution time? 4# (a) Distinguish between the DRAM and the Cache memories? (b) If computer A runs a program in 20 seconds and computer B runs the same program in 28 seconds, then A is n% time faster than B? Find this percentage? 5# (a) What are the main classes of Computers according to their applications? (b) Give a brief description of the different system Buses used in communication between the major components of the computer? Give a sketch diagram? 6# (a) What is a Multicore processor? (b) Find the word or phrase from the list below that best matches the description in the following questions.
Operating system, Desktop computer , Byte, Compiler, Server , Bit, Instructions, Supercomputer,, terabytes, machine language, petabyte , Java, blu-ray, Embedded computers , Multicore processor, Application, DDR2 , CPU, CD, gigabytes, Cache, Linker, Assembly language, Loader. (i) Computer used to run large problems and usually accessed via a network. (ii) Either 1000 or 1024 terabytes. (iii) Binary language that the processor can understand (iv) Binary digit (value 0 or 1) (v) Links the object files to generate .EXE file. (vi) A kind of dynamic random access memory . (vii) Is a type of optical storage have higher capacity than DVD. (viii) Desktop computer without screen or keyboard usually accessed via a network. (ix) Either 1012 or 240 bytes. (x) A computer inside another device used for running one predetermined application.